COLCHESTER, Vt. (AP) – The Vermont Foodbank has watched the demand for food assistance continue to rise.

The agency moved into new quarters in South Barre three years ago and it has continued to find more and more people seeking its help.

Since moving into the larger facility in 1999, the food bank has expanded services and diversified the product line it makes available.

In the past year, the food bank has been recognized nationally for its Community Kitchen project, which rescues perishable and prepared foods from restaurants and hotels.

The food is flash-frozen and turned into heat-and-eat meals. Other donations come from U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, major retailers, and private contributions.

Deborah Flateman, chief executive officer, said one change in the past few years has been the increase of working Vermonters who need food assistance.

Flateman said she is worried that some people are just too proud to go to a food shelf, and she would like to see them overcome their aversion to asking for assistance.

“It’s there for a reason,” she said. “You know all of us could at any time come in and out of that system. I always ask the question: How many paychecks are any of us from needing assistance, if something catastrophic happened in our lives? I would encourage you to find a food shelf where you feel comfortable.”

Richard Ludwig of Riverton is the chef-instructor for the Foodbank’s Community Kitchen Project.

“One of the people in Rutland, one of the agencies, had referred to it as what they call “bachelor degree poor,”‘ he said. “We have people in society that have bachelor degrees that still are food insecure – which we like to use as the term instead of hunger – and they still need food. It’s not a sign that you’re not making it or to be proud of, but there are hungry people, and they could be your neighbor.”

In the past fiscal year, the Foodbank has distributed 7.4 million pounds of food, compared to 4 million pounds in 1999. The food is distributed to 290 agencies around Vermont.

Demand continues to outpace supply.

Flateman said many food shelves are seeing a yearly 30 to 40 percent increase in demand.

Despite that, Flateman remains optimistic about ending hunger in Vermont.

“We cannot affect minimum wage salaries, the cost of housing – we can’t do that,” she said. “What we can do at the Vermont Foodbank is do the best job that we can at recovering our share of the 92 billion pounds of food that is wasted every single year in this country, getting it into Vermont, and recycling it through this charitable food distribution system called Foodbanking.

“If we can just get in the consciousness of everyone in this state, if everyone simply decides that hunger is unacceptable, we can end hunger in this state.”

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On the Net: http://www.VTFoodbank.org.

AP-ES-11-29-03 1246EST